With elections coming up next month, all eyes will be on the judiciary, which will handle post-election cases. How will the election tribunals acquit themselves? Ensuring that they live up to expectation will be a major challenge for Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Mahmud Mohammed,who assumed office last November. Lawyers argue that his management of the tribunals and other vital issues will determine how the judiciary fares in 2015. PRECIOUS IGBONWELUNDU reports.
THE handling of post-election cases may turn out to be the baptism of fire for Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Mahmud Mohammed, who assumed office last November following the retirement of his predecessor, Justice Aloma Mukhtar. Lawyers and politicians hope that Justice Mohammed will ensure that election tribunals are not put under pressure.
To some analysts, Justice Mukhtar enforced discipline in her time by dealing with judges who were found wanting. They recall that some judges were dismissed, retired, suspended or warned for misdemeanours.They also noted the improvement and upgrading of courts and infrastructure as well as landmark judgments that helped in strengthening the judiciary, all under Justice Mukhtar’s watch. Will things be better under Justice Mohammed?
What should be done to ensure that justice is done without fear or favour in 2015 and beyond?
Lawyers’ expectations
Arguing that lawyers should ensure free and fair elections next month, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) president Augustine Alegeh (SAN) said: “We must individually and collectively shun any action that may negatively affect the 2015 general elections. Our development and advancement as a nation are dependent on the leaders that we elect as well as the entire electoral process.”
A maritime law expert, Mr Mike Igbokwe (SAN), urged the CJN to speed up justice delivery, especially in admiralty cases, and to focus on workers’ welfare.
His expectations from the CJN and the judiciary include: “Taking all reasonable steps to ensure speedier administration of justice than we have now as justice delayed is justice denied; and ensuring the empowerment of the judicial officers and staff to discharge their duties effectively and efficiently, thus avoiding denial of justice by delaying justice.”
He said the universal principle that admiralty matters must be expeditiously heard and determined must be encouraged.
“Since 1999 when election matters started rising and taking the attention of the judiciary, the hearing and determination of admiralty matters by the trial and appellate courts had gradually been relegated to the background,” Igbokwe said.
For Dr Joseph Nwobike (SAN), the judiciary has an important role to play in the settlement of election cases.
“As expected, members of that arm of the government at all levels would face a myriad of pressures and temptations from the political class and their beneficiaries. I advise the CJN to find a framework that would insulate these judicial officers from opportunities to pervert justice.
“A well thought-out and implemented framework would deepen the independence of the judiciary and drive the democratic process towards a more rewarding and sustainable end. It will also be important for the other agencies of government charged with law enforcement to collaborate with the Judiciary in this regard.
“Considering the level of which the politicians have heated up the polity along primordial and religious lines, the opportunity to pervert justice is now more prevalent than before.
“It is for this reason that all willing and unwilling hands must be put on deck to ensure that the fabric of modern Nigeria is not distorted this year,” Nwobike said.
Constitutional lawyer and author Mr Sebastine Hon (SAN) said Justice Mohammed would deliver.
“Without mincing words, I would quickly say that the CJN has a track record of avowed humility, intertwined with professional courage and unrivalled sagacity in the discharge of his functions on the Bench. I have no single doubt that he would take our Judiciary to the next level.
“I have always said that it is Herculean to reform the judiciary in Nigeria, no thanks to the institutional and statutory impediments that have laid lethal land mines on the pathway. In other words, without a complete overhaul of our constitutional and legal framework, it will amount to merely paying lip service to carrying out reforms in the Judiciary,” Hon said.
According to him, as the head of judicial arm of government, the CJN should throw his official weight behind enacting legislation that would enhance sound justice administration in the country.
”One crucial area he should focus his energy on is in the sphere of dispensing electoral justice. He should synergise with the President of the Court of Appeal to ensure that aggrieved persons from the various election exercises who approach the courts go home satisfied that justice has been done in their various legal disputes. This will go a long way in stabilising the entire system and avoiding bloodbath.
“There should also be more transparency and objectivity in the appointment and discipline of judicial officers. More competent private hands should be employed as judges as against the current ‘promotion’ exercise, where once a judicial officer attains seniority by dint of being the first to be appointed among his colleagues, he is promoted to the next higher court regardless of his competence and professionalism,” Hon said.
New performance assessment criteria needed
Hon also urged the CJN to revisit the performance assessment criteria for judges and justices.
His words: “Currently, I understand that rulings and judgments delivered on interlocutory matters do not count in the performance indices set up by the CJN’s predecessors. Yet, out of every 100 cases, about 99 have interlocutory issues to contend with; and at times, such interlocutory applications which keep rearing up as the need arises, take months and years to be settled one way or the other!
“Mind you there is settled law that no court of law should ignore any interlocutory application no matter how unmeritous it might be! Again, judgments in consolidated suits and appeals are reckoned as one instead of the two or more suits/appeals that have been consolidated!
“Yet, each of such consolidated suits/appeals has its facts and different papers are filed for each of them! The net is that half-baked justice is being dished out to litigants just because the judges qua justices are operating under these onerous and irksome conditions of service. The CJN should please revisit this issue urgently.”
Hon also wants an enforcement of the two Federal High Court judgments which ruled in favour of financial independence for the judiciary.
“The CJN as the head of the judiciary, the Attorney-General of the Federation as the official leader of the Bar, the various State Chief Judges and Attorneys-General, the NBA led by Augustine Alegeh, all Senior Advocates of Nigeria, all Judges, Magistrates, lawyers, the press and indeed all Nigerians should stand up in unison and insist that these judgments are implemented without further delay!
“This will solve most of the problems we are facing today. Everybody should support this noble cause please, and urgently too,” Hon added.
Task before state courts
A human rights group, Access to Justice (AJ), believes not much has changed in the administration of justice, particularly in the judiciary, in spite of the remarkable efforts and leadership of the former CJN.
The group said this is because Nigeria is yet to develop the systems and procedures that drive change on their own, and support stronger accountability of judicial and court staff at both federal and state levels.
The group, through its Executive Director Mr Joseph Otteh, said: “The immediate past CJN was exemplary in creating the kind of leadership that was responsive and exemplary. But she is no longer there! We hope her successor can demonstrate that kind of astute leadership. No. We should not hope, and that’s the problem.
“We should by now, have the rules, reforms and the framework that guarantees this: a framework that institutionalises a different way of doing things, a different way of running the judicial system and which ensures that different actors in the administration of justice deliver expected performance results and do so transparently and accountably.”
According to Otteh, with a new CJN in the saddle, there is a new opportunity to reinvent the approach adopted to fix the old problems to get them right from the foundation, and ensure that those at the states can be mobilised to follow suit.
“Why should courts be constantly accused of sabotaging the anti-corruption war because of the interminable delays (seven, eight years and still counting in some cases) encountered in concluding those cases in spite of new powers conferred on them by the amended Constitution?
“We need to see more reforms at the state level, stronger oversight and accountability of lower courts judges and court staff. Corruption is still a major issue in the courts, and Justice Mukhtar and Justice Amina Augie have lamented this.
“Performance and case management measures should be introduced to improve performance levels and ensure court users have a meaningful and efficient time in court,” Otteh said.
The human rights group identified what it described as two other sticking points: the situation in Rivers State, and the need for the Bar to fulfil its role.
The role of the Bar
The Rivers crisis, AJ said, is deplorable and needs urgent resolution.
“The leadership of the judiciary and the Bar must make this a priority. The Rivers people have suffered innocently as a result of the impasse,” the group said.
According to AJ, it is time for the Bar to fulfil its role as a major driver for change. “For too long, the Bar has remained a ‘consumer professional community’ and ipso facto, a victim of poor leadership.
“Lawyers face tremendous hurdles discharging their professional duties, face constant extortion, appear in courts that many times do not sit and give no prior notice, and bear the brunt of a loss of public confidence in the justice system.
“At best, the Bar has been a reactive stakeholder and voice in the administration of justice. The Bar can, and should do better. It can and should catalyze good policy-making and enforcement by the leadership of the judiciary at both the centre and in the States. This could be a 2015 priority,” Otteh added.
Former Anambra State Attorney-General, Peter Afuba said the judiciary performed fairly well last year, urging the new CJN to sustain the tempo.
He said: “The immediate past CJN came up with lots of reforms that improved productivity of judicial workers across the country. I expect the trend to continue with these reforms. The judiciary will be faced with a lot of challenges this year with the general elections coming up soon.
“There will be a lot of election petitions and so, I expect that these challenges will be handled dispassionately and justice dispensed without fear or favour, so that at the end of the day, the Nigerian masses will see that justice has been done and their faith in the system restored. This will make the aftermath of the elections acceptable and conducive.
“If petitions are handled as should, there will be stability in our country in this trying year. The judiciary has a crucial and delicate role to play this year and I expect it to do so without fear or favour.”
Chairman, NBA Ikeja Branch Mr Yinka Farounbi urged the judiciary to prepare adequately for the challenges of the elections. “Like Caesar’s wife, it is required of it to be above board. The head of the institution should consciously constitute men and women of proven integrity to head the various Election Tribunals across the country.
“The independence and neutrality of the body will go a long way in assuring the citizens of this country that it is worth of being relied on.
“I equally advise that the welfare of other judicial workers should be taken into account with view to commanding their respect and loyalty. The issue of the embarrassing strikes or threat of same should be rigidly addressed. The institution is too important to always be involved in strikes,” Farounbi said.
The Tiger Branch’s chief also wants to see more use of information technology. “All over the world the IT is the real thing now. I thus urge that our courts should be computerised at whatever cost. Writing in long hands should be discouraged and done away with.
“I urge the CJN to call all the stakeholders in the institution and finally agree and set the guiding rules in the appointment of a Chief Judge. What is presently playing out in River State should not be allowed to repeat itself in any other state again.
“The judiciary should examine itself and flush out the bad eggs therein. This done, the people will repose more confidence in the system,” Farounbi added.
Lagos lawyer Theophilus Akanwa said: “I expect a judiciary totally free from corruption; a judiciary with an improved speed in dispensation of justice; a judiciary that will be IT compliant and an independent judiciary with the focus of delivering justice without fear or favour.”
A lawyer, Dr Fred Odutola, said in 2015, justice must not just be done, it must be seen to have been done, adding: “Let our judges act unfettered by the executive and or the legislative arms of the government.
“The hope of the common man before the courts must not be slaughtered on the altar of undue influence over the judges. Judges should pronounce judgment without their ‘hands being tied’. They should remember that they will still give account before God, the ultimate judge.”
Odutola also wants to see a swifter justice delivery, as ‘justice delayed is justice denied. “A situation of adjournment and adjournment until the litigants start to die is undefendable. Many times, the courtesy is not even there for the Court Registrar to phone or email the counsel that the court would not sit, only for the counsel and litigants to travel to court and be told to take another date as the court would not be sitting,” he said.
The judiciary, Odutola said, must be financially independent, as well as review antiquated laws.
“Let the Judiciary have its budget, managed by it and not wait for salary from the executive. Let it not be a situation of ‘He who pays the piper dictates the tune’. Allegiance of the judiciary should be to God and the common man in the building of a virile Nigeria and nobody, not even the leaders should be above the law.
“The CJN should catalyse the review of obnoxious laws and fines, some dating back to the times of Mungo Park. Fines in lieu of times in jails should be punitive and commensurate with the offences committed.
“A situation where someone who has embezzled billions of naira of pensioners would be asked to pay a fine of N750,000 is unexplainable to the layman. This makes people cast aspersions on the judges as taking bribes, whereas, the judge cannot conjure fines not stated in law,” Odutola said.
A member of the Ogun State Judicial Service Commission, Mr Abayomi Omoyinmi, said the judiciary should improve on speedy dispensation of cases especially criminal matters.
“It must also avoid situations where conflicts in decisions, pronouncements and judgments are beginning to be noticeable in our justice system in the recent times.
“Priority should be given to appointment of more magistrates and judges where necessary as the population is growing. This will bring confidence in the people in the hope that justice is not delayed. The autonomy of judiciary is also essential in the times ahead,” Omoyinmi said.
For Mr Ikechukwu Ikeji, there is the need to revisit the mode of judges’appointment and to closely monitor their social engagements.
Also needed, he said, are strict regulation on participation of judges in social activities, review of the CJN’s constitutional powers regarding the membership of, and appointment into, the National Judicial Council (NJC), stricter regime on discipline for erring judges, improved conditions of service, computerisation of the recording processes, less executive interference and quick dispensation of justice.
“It goes without saying that today most of the judges appointed are so appointed by reason of who they know not necessarily their competence. Moreover, the appointment of judges should be by means of an advertised notice in national media, which will lead to a strict examination and interview process devoid of favouritism, tribe or religion.
“Often times, we find that real brilliant lawyers never get the opportunity to be appointed judges rather you find family, friends and relations being given the opportunity. This of course leads to a fallen standard of justice dispensation.
“Regarding social functions, it is common sight to see our judges shamelessly socialising with all manner of people including politicians and businessmen who surely would have some form of litigation at one time or the other before the judges or the colleagues of the judges.
“These social interactions whittle down the resistance strength and level of our judges and should either be outlawed or regulated. You easily see judges in family birthdays, memorials, weddings and so on. This does not augur well for the mindset of the judges as to guarantee their neutrality.
“Again, in this age, you still find our judges engaged in long hand recording of proceedings. The result is that most judges lose the meat of the cases while trying to catch up with the presentations of counsel. The recording system of the courts ought to be computerised as obtained in some jurisdictions and in very few courts in Nigeria.
“Another fetter on the judiciary is the awesome power of the CJN to appoint members of the NJC. This means that 75 per cent of members of the apex administrative body are bound to follow the thought pattern of the CJN. This is worrisome and ought to be reviewed,” Ikeji said.
For Mr Yemi Omodele, besides the need for quicker determination of cases through refusal to grant frivolous adjournments, court infrastructure also need to be improved.
“A situation where lack of power supply makes a judge not to sit is bad. Also, impromptu seminars/conferences, meetings/appointments that make a judge not to sit cause set backs for cases. These areas should be addressed.
“2015 is an election year in Nigeria. Definitely I expect the judges who will handle those cases to do their jobs according to their oath of office and law. They should do the work without having sympathy for any candidate or political party. They should not think of incumbency or not. They should work based on the facts and evidence placed before the court/tribunal.
“I suggest that the CJN should ensure that people appointed to the magistrate/High Court bench are seasoned private practising lawyers. Practising lawyers know a lot in terms of litigation and going to the bench will surely assist in performance. I also state that counsel with clean records be appointed to the bench.
“Seminars, meetings, ceremonies and others for the judges/judicial workers should be fixed for weekends, closing hours/holidays so that it will not affect court work. The principle of integrity should be maintained,” Omodele said.
According to him, the CJN should also bring an end to incessant strikes by judiciary workers.
“Workers in the legislature hardly go on strike, so how come judicial workers go on strike often? The welfare of the judicial workers must be improved so that they will be willing and ready to work. This will guard against corruption in the judiciary. The judicial workers could be given house and car loans as an encouragement,” Omodele added.
For Mrs Gloria Egbuji, a lawyer, the judiciary should remain “upright and unbiased in their judgments and ensure that judgements delivered in record time because justice delayed is justice denied.”
